Summer 2011 Recap: Editor's Picks For Best And Worst

In a summer suffering from alien invasion bloat, consider me shocked and delighted that someone could actually create an alien invasion film worth talking about. Eschewing the blockbusteryness of middling duds like Battle: Los Angeles and Cowboys and Aliens, Joe Cornish's little action/horror/comedy keeps the scale small, yet sacrifices none of the shocks, the humor, nor the excitement in the process. His script creates a cast of characters that you actually empathize with, though early on, you hate them given their thuggish behavior. John Boyega leads a cast of South London thugs who are interrupted from mugging a woman by the crash landing of a beastly alien. Their first instinct being to go after the alien and kill it is a refreshing change of pace from the usual slack-jawed 'fraidy cats we get in these types of films, as is the crudely boorish way they go about it. But as the film evolves, the kids realize exactly how in over their heads they are, and the script gives them ample opportunity to earn their redemption, and your empathy, as it goes along. It's one of the most freshly original sci-fi films I've seen in ages, and it's a ton of fun to boot.

I'm actually still a bit gobsmacked by how much I enjoyed the fifth film in the Fast and the Furious franchise (holy hell that's a lot of F-words). The last film, Fast and Furious was nothing to write home about. But this time around, director Justin Lin finally found his sea legs in working with the regular cast, and constructed what I still think is this summer's best piece of big, dumb entertainment. Fast Five has some of the best set-piece action sequences of any film in the series, and despite the general lack of street racing in this sequel, you still get ample time spent with cars doing ridiculous things. Plus, the addition of Dwayne Johnson as an extremely antagonistic federal agent might be the best casting decision anyone has made for this series in ages. The Rock vs. Vin Diesel? Game over, rest of the summer blockbusters. Game over.

This might be the most anti-summer movie of all summer movies, but I don't care. As children's entertainment goes, Disney's newest take on Winnie the Pooh is by far the best bit of kids-oriented filmmaking I've seen all year. Sure, it lacks the noise, the computer-animated excitement, and eye-piercing 3D of all the other kids cartoons out there, but...wait, actually, those are all good things. Maybe some toddlers might get antsy with the film's slow, sometimes meandering pace, but the quality of the hand-drawn animation, voice acting, and storytelling here are so unbelievably good, that it's hard to imagine any kid not falling in love with Winnie and friends all over again. Its short length be damned, I loved this movie.

I suppose no summer is complete without some putrid abortion of a comedy, though the surprise here is that Adam Sandler had nothing to do with it. Instead, it's Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds flinging poop and cursing up a storm for absolutely no reason in this abhorrent mess of a movie. Body switch comedies are generally pretty dumb to begin with, but if you can find a way to make the life lessons that are inevitably contained within interesting, and the characters a bit more fleshed out than idiotic archetypes we've seen done over and over again in R-rated fare, then maybe you have a chance. The Change-Up doesn't even give any of that the old college try. It's perfectly happy with its scatological, hyper-stupid leanings, and makes zero attempt to rise beyond the shit-encrusted bottom of this genre's barrel. I've not felt so utterly disgusted with a movie in quite some time.

This film, more than any other on this list, feels like it was something that happened at just the right place and time for me to enjoy it at maximum intensity. I've gone on record as not being the biggest fan of the Harry Potter films (the books are far better, in my eyes), but if you're going to end a series, end it with a bang. The IMAX theater here in San Francisco is the biggest theater in the city outside of the old Castro, but even a young audience like the one I saw it with on a Friday morning was rapt with attention, deadly silent during the tense moments, easily moved by the sad bits, laughing and applauding at the most opportune times. I don't know how well the experience of watching this movie will hold up on Blu-Ray, but for two hours in the middle of this summer, I finally felt like this series captured (and I'm sorry for this) the magic that the Harry Potter books managed to convey.

This is one of the most pure summer movies you're likely to catch this year, or any other. JJ Abrams' throwback to early-career Spielberg might not have been able to match the master's best works, but Abrams' direction and script certainly got as close as any Spielberg acolyte has recently managed. Spielberg has managed to mold a half-dozen decent directors as his proteges over the last 30 years, but Abrams has the potential to outshine most of them when it comes to populist entertainment, if his last couple of movies prove anything. Abrams' tale isn't particularly original, but it's fiercely well-done, and his ability to wring funny, touching performances from a group of pre-teens was the difference between this film falling apart and being fantastically entertaining. Luckily, it veered much closer to the latter half of that spectrum.

If August has thus far taught us anything, it's that you shouldn't count out a film based on its advertisements, no matter how tempting it is to do so. Both ROTPOTA and Fright Night looked like they might wind up being sub-standard, thanks to lackluster trailers and commercials, but both were much better on screen than they we were led to believe. Rise, in particular, managed to weave some superlative CGI monkeys and wordless dialogue into one of the most fascinating stories of science run amok than has hit the screen in years. Whether or not the whole Andy Serkis Oscar campaign takes hold (I have my doubts), his Caesar is still one of the most compelling characters of any film this summer.

The more I reflect on this film, the worse I think of it. Again, this is a movie where a cosmetics salesman is the hero, and he's helped in his goal to create a killer campaign to sell cosmetics to women by the Smurfs. He ends up creating a sales campaign so good that women will flock to buy their eyeliner and lipstick from his company, and he's thusly rewarding by being given more responsibilities and the privilege of working for an insufferable bitch for the rest of his life. The Smurfs reinforces everything that's wrong, not just with children's films, but with American culture in general.

Going into the summer movie season, I told friends that I honestly believed this one could surprise everyone and end up being the best comic book movie of the year. While I’m sure not everyone agrees on that point, I think it’s pretty safe to lay some universal praise on First Class. And that’s saying a lot considering just how negative a reaction there was to the plethora of casting news and early one-sheets for the film.

This was a movie that was carried by the superb acting chops of Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, not to mention some standout performances from the supporting cast. I’ve always thought the relationship between Professor X and Magneto was one of the richest in comics, so I was glad to see a story that really focused on its beginnings. Setting the film in the Cold War era also garnered major points with me, since that period of time was akin to a ticking time bomb. It usually ends up making things feel that much more dramatic.

I think what makes this film so great is that I enjoyed the hell out of it without having read any of the books or being a die-hard a fan of the other movies in the series like most people. I didn’t think they were bad… they just weren’t my cup of tea. Of course, that all changed with the finale to the billion-dollar franchise.

The last film in a series is usually difficult to pull off, because you have to wrap up so many storylines and please a fan base that’s been waiting years for the final chapter of the journey. This one nailed it on both counts. But, for me, the biggest thing this Harry Potter had going for it was the darker tone it took. I like my films gritty and a little bleaker, so I was especially digging this one for giving me that.

I have to admit I was pretty lukewarm to the decision to cast Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. It wasn’t that I doubted his acting ability (Sunshine had already proved to me that he had a whole lot of talent), I just wasn’t sure if he was the best choice for the role. He ended up being perfect for the part… shows what I know.

Out of all the movies I’ve seen over the past few months, I probably had the most fun at this one. It really felt like a throwback to some of the old action-adventure classics of the 80s and early 90s. In particular, the aesthetic and style of it all really reminded me of Indiana Jones at times. Obviously, that’s a comparison any film would love to have. It also really upped my anticipation level for The Avengers, which I’m sure was Marvel’s plan all along.

Full admission: I’m a total mark for Cap. For all of my comics fandom, I’ve liked his origin best out of any Marvel hero’s. So I’ll fess up to having a predisposition to liking this flick; one which maybe wasn’t shared by a movie-going majority whose only prior experience with Cap may very well have been limited to that throwaway joke in Men In Black. All said, this was actually a stellar summer for Marvel movies and I’d just as soon put Thor and First Class on this list, but won’t in the interest of diversity. Suffice it to say, this is the only movie I’ve been motivated enough to see twice in theaters in a long while. My thoughts really haven’t changed much since the advance review I did for Comic Vine but, to repeat, it was fundamentally refreshing to see a movie like this pit a hero against a villain without apology.

Grindhouse was one of the most solid three hours of entertainment I’ve ever experienced in a theater, hands down, and it so pleases my black heart to see its ghastly spirit continuing on in this spiritual successor/ spin-off. We romanticize sometimes about what it would’ve been like to catch cult classics in the adults-only crowds they’d have first played in front of in the 70s, and I don’t expect it couldn’t have gotten any cooler than this pure, unadulterated so-naughty-yet-so-good pandemonium. The ghoulish, unexplainable Plague and Rutger Hauer’s rusty nails intense monologue to the newborns are both already well-cemented in my personal cult movie pantheon. Few movies can claim to deliver as much of what you want out of them as this two-fisted, double-barreled shocker.

[Note: Tom is referring to the Mortal Kombat videogame that came out a couple of months ago; this was the closest thing we had in our database, so...]

As games’ narratives grow ever more sophisticated, I find myself more inclined to include them in lists like these. God of War II was my favorite “movie” in ‘07 because it gave me everything I wanted out of a blockbuster that year but didn’t get. Likewise, the story mode of this latest MK game, with its Star Trek-style “time travel reboot,” finally gave me a proper dramatization of the mythos-between-matches after I only sort-of, kind-of got it in a few episodes of Legacy and the first MK movie (and most definitely didn’t get in Annihilation.) The notion of drama writ within fatalities and flawless victories may sound preposterous, but I’d honestly go out on a limb and argue that Raiden’s doomed struggle to change the future had legitimate pathos to it. There was a sense of desperation that you’d never, ever be allowed to have in any movie adaptation. Plus, Cyber Sub-Zero’s arrival was an irresistible palm-punching moment for any longtime fan.